1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a photoresist process in the fabrication of a semiconductor device, for instance, a resist solution is supplied to a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as wafer) or the like to form a resist film and after the resist film is exposed in a predetermined pattern, a developing solution is supplied to the wafer to develop the pattern. To perform such a series of processes, a coating and developing processing system has been conventionally used.
In the series of processes, it is necessary to adjust properly various environments such as temperature, humidity, ammonia concentration, a state of particles, and the like. To that end, conventionally, clean air blown out from a temperature controller is supplied from the top of the system to form a down flow of clean air in the coating and developing system and a chemical filter is inserted into a clean air supply port.
However, out of the series of processes, although the step of developing the resist film does not need much consideration of humidity compared with the step of forming the resist film, for example, control of humidity is actually performed more than necessary in the step of developing the resist film because the developing step is performed in the same environment as the step of forming the resist film. Moreover, although the step of developing the resist film does not need consideration of the number of particles compared with the step of forming the resist film, for example, clean air in a down flow is actually supplied more than necessary in the step of developing the resist film because the developing step is performed in the same environment as the step of forming the resist film. Furthermore, for instance, in a case where the series of processes has the step of forming an antireflection film on the wafer before applying the resist, there is a disadvantage that chemical filters more than necessary in number are used because clean air is supplied through the chemical filters though ammonia concentration is relatively insignificant in the above step. Consequently, there arises the problem of an increased cost of forming the system environment.
An object of the present invention is to provide a processing system capable of reducing the cost of forming a system environment.
To solve the above disadvantage, a processing system of the present invention is characterized by being divided into a first block where processing for applying an antireflection film on a substrate is performed; a second block where processing for applying a resist film on the substrate is performed; a third block where processing for developing an exposed resist film is performed; and a fourth block where transfer of the substrate between the blocks is performed, in which temperature and humidity are controlled for the first and second blocks, and temperature is controlled for the third block, and temperature is not controlled for the fourth block.
According to the configuration of the present invention, the system is divided into blocks in accordance with the nature of the processing so as to control environments suitably for each block, thereby reducing the cost of the formation of the system environment. Concretely, humidity during formation of a film exerts a great effect on the film thickness, while humidity during developing has no great influence on developing processing, and thus temperature and humidity are controlled for the first and second blocks and temperature is controlled for the third block without controlling humidity. Moreover, since temperature and humidity have no great influence on the substrate during transfer, the fourth block is not temperature-controlled. Thereby, facilities and the like to form the system environment are decreased on the whole to reduce cost.
These objects and still other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following specification when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.